About your other author, in sports memories

Biases up front: I'm Canadian. I didn't discover this thing you call "E-S-P-N" till 2005 so I always got my sports fix with a Canadian bias - meaning no bias at all.

Yes, it is true that up in Canad-er we do play our own version of football, our lives revolve around the nearest Tim Horton's and our five dollar bill is blue and contains a picture of kids playing hockey on a pond. Don't laugh - it's great. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Here are my favorite sports memories in no particular order.

Joe Carter - 1993 World Series

Really, my first true sports memory. I was at a family gathering watching the game with my friends and cousins. I wasn't allowed to wear my Blue Jays cap because that wouldn't be appropriate for the occasion. Disappointed and longing for my cap, I can still hear the screams in the room when Carter hit the home run and jump, skipped and hopped around the bases, single-handedly starting an earthquake across the city. We were the champs, every year was going to be like this.

Ummm, not quite. The Blue Jays haven't been back to the playoff since -- it's been 15 years. Since that home run: I've grown hair on my chest, ate two million pounds of pizza, stopped wearing my red Montreal Canadians track pants to school (and work) and gone through about 33 hideous hair styles; each time thinking it's going to work with the ladies but it never does.

Team Canada Win Hockey Gold in 2002 Olympics

Thanks to Wayne Gretzky planting the lucky loonie at center ice, Canada dominated and emerged victorious to take home the gold medal. It's difficult to explain what hockey means to Canada. I guess the best way to gain a better understanding is to think about what you like the most in the world -- it could be a sport, a person, a place that contains your childhood memories or maybe just a favorite pair of long johns (thermal underwear) that gets you through the winter. Now take your selection and multiply your passion by 32,784,738 and there you go. That's how much hockey means to Canadians.

2007 NCAA College Basketball Season

Dance brother dance! Look at him go!

That dance combined with Greg Oden's block on Corey Brewer in the championship game being the ultimate "And1" moment capped off a great basketball season. I'm convinced Brewer still wakes up in the middle of the night, sweating, thinking Oden is towering over him trying to bear-hug his Alf doll out of his hands. Other highlights: Joey Dorsey called Oden "overrated," Kevin Durant scored a few points and Duke didn't win.

Mental Breakdowns

Maybe this says something about my personality and depressive tendencies but I'm a huge fan of the athlete breakdowns appropriately accompanied with growing a beard and leaving the country, only to return the next year with understanding that it's just a game. It humanizes the athletes. The whole process needs to be broken down academically - sort of like the levels of grief.

The breakdown can begin after a tragic loss like it did for Dirk Nowitzki who spent a summer in Australia after being annihilated by the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the 2007 playoffs. Or like Vince Young who had his feelings hurt by the fans and was on the terrifying edge between life and death.

My personal favorite mental breakdown is the one in pursuit of a greater understanding of the world around us and each individual's purpose in it - Ricky Williams.

The next athlete to join this illustrious list? Alex Rodriguez. It's inevitable. He might as well breakdown this year when nobody is paying attention to the Yankees anyways. I hope the Yankees don't make him shave his "breakdown beard" when he shows up for spring training in 2009.

Vince ("Wince") Carter

"Hate" is not a word I associate with many things in the world. I hate pineapples and sometimes I hate driving but other than that, I'm alright. But, I hate Vince Carter. When you're a successful athlete in America, you're are just one of many but when you're a star in Canada, you become a national icon (ask Steve Nash). Carter was our national icon - our hero. Every Carter dunk on Sportscenter was followed by an entire nation proudly saying: "That's our guy."

Turns out he wasn't our guy. Carter quit on the Toronto Raptors over and over again citing "injuries," "graduation," "laziness," "boredom," and sometime part-time duties as a "gigolo" (Carter's a male prostitute - pass it on!).

When he was finally booted out of Canada he was awarded with contempt from an entire nation. An award that he will never be able to give back. I hate you Vince Carter. I hate you.